


don't let the tide come

by karasunonolibero



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, Sea Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-11-26 16:11:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20933039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karasunonolibero/pseuds/karasunonolibero
Summary: There’s a new voice on the surface.Sugawara notices it right away. He elbows Akaashi in the gills and points up, to the dark shadow overhead. That’s the source of the new voice—no, two new voices. One is loud and brash even with the water muffling the noise. The other is calmer, almost exasperated-sounding. There’s a splash, and then the lowering of a net. Fishermen.~or, two new fishermen enter the waters that Sugawara and Akaashi call home.





	don't let the tide come

**Author's Note:**

> for [mintystea](http://mintystea.tumblr.com)! happy halloween, i took a few liberties with folklore here but i hope you enjoy mer!suga and mer!akaashi! 
> 
> title comes from [the tide by niall horan](https://youtu.be/fHjnoPGgCHI)

There’s a new voice on the surface.

Sugawara notices it right away. He elbows Akaashi in the gills and points up, to the dark shadow overhead. That’s the source of the new voice—no, _two_ new voices. One is loud and brash even with the water muffling the noise. The other is calmer, almost exasperated-sounding. There’s a splash, and then the lowering of a net. Fishermen.

Sugawara’s mostly grown bored of pestering the fishermen, ever since their reactions turned from shock to ambivalence. But now, with fresh humans to bait…

Akaashi tugs at the fin on his left arm and shakes his head, like he already knows what Sugawara is thinking. He probably does. Sugawara laughs, bubbles issuing from his mouth in a stream, and jerks his arm away, swimming up to the surface. Akaashi will follow. He always does.

It’s a sunny day on the surface, the rays of light piercing through the clear water and illuminating the depths. A good fishing day, it would seem. Sugawara turns around to see Akaashi swimming up to meet him, golden scales shimmering as they catch the light. Sugawara grins and keeps going, slicing through the water with practiced ease.

Years of observing and heckling the humans have taught him some valuable lessons. One: always listen and observe first. They might be hostile. Two: approach from directly under the boat so they can’t see you. Three: never show yourself the first time.

Sugawara swims under the shadow, giggling to himself when he hears the loud one exclaim, “Whoa, Sawamura! Did you see that? It was like—a really big silver fish!”

Sawamura. Now the calm one has a name. Akaashi joins him under the boat, both of them careful not to make waves and alert the humans to their presence.

“Bokuto, it’s probably just a shark or something,” Sawamura says with something that sounds like a sigh. “Can you hand me that box?”

Bokuto and Sawamura. A strange-sounding pair, just from this brief exchange. Sugawara brushes his tail against Akaashi’s to get his attention and points eastward, to their favorite rock for observing humans. Akaashi nods, a mischievous smile flickering across his lips. A race, then. Sugawara nods, and they’re off. The last thing Sugawara hears is Bokuto shouting, “Whoa, there it goes again!”

The rock is a few miles offshore and shielded from direct view from the shore by a low cliff, at the perfect distance so they can lie flat and watch the docks without drawing attention to themselves. Sugawara has taken to calling it Gossip Point. He heaves himself out of the water, gasping in a breath of air as he slithers onto his rocky perch. Akaashi follows right behind him, inhaling deeply and flopping around until he’s on his stomach, chin resting in his hands. “So. New humans.”

“New _fishermen_,” Sugawara adds, combing his silver hair back from where it’s matted to his forehead. “I want to do the weed trick. And the treasure trick. And the—”

“Suga,” Akaashi sighs, “just don’t get us caught. I don’t want to die in an aquarium.”

“When have I ever!” Sugawara bares sharp teeth in a laugh. “We’ll be fine. And they’ll think it’s funny.” He drapes himself over the rock, gaze directed toward the fishermen. “That loud one. Bokuto. He’ll probably laugh.”

Akaashi chuckles. “He would,” he agrees. “What do you think they look like?”

This is another one of their favorite games to play when they’re perched here—usually they’re at too much of a distance to make out the humans’ features, so they try to guess, based on their voices. Sugawara hums in consideration. “Sawamura. I bet he’s handsome and dreamy. But kind.”

Akaashi takes a bit longer to decide how he thinks Bokuto will look. “Probably ridiculous, if his voice is anything to go by,” he declares, which sends Sugawara into a fit of laughter.

~

Three days later, Sugawara hears the voices again. They’re back. He wakes up with a start, flinging himself toward Akaashi’s bed and motioning frantically to the surface. Akaashi’s gunmetal blue eyes fly open, and next thing Sugawara knows, it’s Akaashi leading him upwards, toward the shadow of the boat.

“There, I saw it again!” Bokuto’s exclaiming as the net drops into the water. “The silver thing! And a gold one, too!”

“Let’s hope it’s a school of fish,” Sawamura says. Sugawara turns to Akaashi with a grin. Akaashi swishes his hands through the water in front of his face with a questioning expression; Sugwara’s response is to nod and swim back down. He knows how to draw the fish to him—all it takes is a few flicks of his tail, letting the silver scales reflect the sunlight, and they come swimming.

As much as he likes pranks, he also likes helping when the mood strikes. He can’t do much, down here, without revealing his true nature, but he can at least guide a few fish into the nets and make sure someone eats tonight. Once the fish have swum into the net, he darts out so he doesn’t get caught, and goes back to where Akaashi is waiting.

“Holy shit, man!” Bokuto yells. “The nets, get the nets!”

“Where the hell did all these fish come from?” Sawamura exclaims. The net begins to rise toward the surface, and the men keep shouting.

“The silver and gold things, I swear!”

The mermen start to giggle as they swim further out to sea, bubbles trailing behind them as they leave the fishermen to their work.

~

The next day, Sugawara gets to crow in Akaashi’s face that he was right. Sugawara finds a spyglass hidden in the sand under his bed, so he brings it up to Gossip Point so he and Akaashi can get a closer look at the fishermen they’ve heard, but have yet to see.

“I found it and it was under my bed, so I get to look first,” Sugawara declares, even though Akaashi hasn’t made a move to grab the spyglass. After shaking a bit of water out of it, he shuts one eye and peers through.

The boat itself is a shiny white, with a single black stripe running along the side and the name _SEABIRD_ written on the side in proud gold lettering. One of the men is tall, with biceps visible through his shirt and white-tipped hair that sticks straight up like he’s been shocked. The other is shorter but just as broad-shouldered and wears a cloth hat with a brim to shield his face from the sun. “Ooh, they’re both good-looking,” Sugawara coos, handing the spyglass to Akaashi. “Who do you think is who?”

After a minute of quiet observation, Akaashi lowers the spyglass. “Bokuto is the one with the urchin hair.”

“Urchin hair!” Sugawara barks out a laugh. “How do you know?”

“His voice matches,” Akaashi says, and Sugawara has to agree. A boisterous appearance for a boisterous voice. “So that means you get the conventionally handsome one.”

“Hey!” Sugawara flicks his tail, smacking Akaashi’s with his own. “Why do you say that like I get the stinging end of the jellyfish here?”

Akaashi’s smile is small, but genuine. “Unfortunately, I’ve never liked conventionally attractive anything.”

“Says you, who is very conventionally attractive.”

“I am not, but you are.”

Sugawara grins, pleased with the compliment, resting his head atop folded arms and humming thoughtfully as he looks toward the _Seabird_. “He _is_ quite handsome, isn’t he?”

Akaashi wiggles a bit closer, reaching for the spyglass again. “It’s a shame they’re human,” he laments.

“Well, nobody’s perfect, I suppose,” Sugawara sighs.

~

It’s not out of the ordinary for Sugawara to momentarily fall in love with a human. Dozens of times, he’s looked at a fisherman or swimmer or diver and swooned and declared them quite handsome. But very few of them are special enough for Sugawara to decide to send a gift to.

Under his bed is a collection of rusty old trunks that he’s found in various shipwrecks over the years. He’s long since rifled through them and thrown out most of the contents—lots of dull metal that seemed to serve little purpose, and waterlogged bits of fabric that he can’t find a use for—but he likes using them to send gifts to the chosen few humans he takes a shine to, choosing a trunk and filling it with shells and bits of coral and leaving it for them to find.

Today, when he sees the _Seabird_ on the surface, he darts home to start making a trunk for Sawamura. Akaashi joins him shortly, pointing to the inside of the box with a quizzical glance. Sugawara thinks for a moment, then plucks a starfish from his own chest of treasures and adding it to the trunk. Akaashi starts going through his own belongings, and soon they’ve thrown a dozen little things in the box. They’re all worthless, really, just small coins and starfish and shiny shells, but Sugawara’s learned that they make humans smile. Once they’ve filled the trunk, Sugawara swims back up to the boat. They can’t be seen, so they have to be quick. Sugawara waits until he sees the newly empty net sink into the water, and here’s his chance. He tosses the box into the net and darts away, knowing they’ve probably seen his tail.

Akaashi tells him later that Sawamura did, in fact, finally take notice of his tail, and commented to Bokuto that the color and beauty of Sugawara’s scales could rival the moon and all the stars. Sugawara isn’t sure if Akaashi’s just making that up to put a smile on his face, but it works.

~

The weeks pass, and Sugawara starts to learn when Sawamura and Bokuto will be around. They settle into a pattern: they come out for two days, then are gone for three. Sugawara starts planning his days around when he knows the _Seabird_ will be out—it’s not like he has much else to do, really. He and Akaashi end up spending more time on Gossip Point than ever before, spyglass in hand, taking turns sighing and pining over their respective handsome humans. And they’re careful, always so careful, to slip into the water the moment the boat begins to turn toward them.

But one day, they slip up.

On the first properly warm day of the year, Sugawara and Akaashi head up to the surface to lounge on Gossip Point and look at the clouds and wait for the _Seabird_ to leave the docks. The sun is comforting on Sugawara’s skin, a different kind of warmth than he’s used to underwater, but it’s part of the fun of spending time on the surface.

“What do you think you’d say to Bokuto if you could meet him?” Sugawara asks as he sprawls out on his back, tail curved above his head to shield his face from the sun.

Akaashi hums in thought. “I’m not sure,” he muses, turning Sugawara’s spyglass over in his hands. “I think it would depend on what he said to me first. But I would like to tell him that his laugh is very nice, and how interesting his hair is and that it suits him. What about you? What would you say to Sawamura?”

Sugawara doesn’t hesitate. “I’d tell him he’s handsome,” he says. “The most handsome man I’ve ever seen. And I’d ask him what he thought of the gift. And I’d tell him that—" he yawns “—that I’d love to drag him underwater with me and make him my husband.” He huffs, dipping his tail in the sea and flicking some water onto his body so he doesn’t dry out. “If only humans could breathe underwater.”

“You’d have taken twenty husbands by now if they could.”

“Hey!”

“Harlot.”

“Akaaaaaaashi!” Sugawara whines, splashing water on his friend’s face.

Akaashi sputters, blinking and wiping his face, but laughing all the while. “You know,” he says, “I bet that’s how Bokuto would say my name if I told him it.”

Sugawara giggles. He can hear it perfectly—the man’s voice carries, and he’s always yelling or dragging out words, much to Sawamura’s resignation. “He would. That would get annoying after a while, I bet.”

“I think it would be too endearing to be annoying. I could get used to it.” Akaashi smiles. “Sawamura has a pleasant voice. Your name would sound nice coming from him.”

“That it would.” Sugawara yawns again, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back, happy as a cat in a patch of sunlight, eyelids starting to droop. He might rest, just for a bit. “Hey.” He nudges Akaashi. “Can you wake me up if they get too close?”

“Of course.”

Sugawara nods, letting his tail flop back into the water, and he drifts off, falling into a dream the moment he closes his eyes.

_He’s sitting on Gossip Point alone, the sky above him cloudless. In the distance, he sees Bokuto and Sawamura, but they’re not in their usual fishing boat. This time they’re in something like a Spanish Galleon, white sails billowing in the wind. As they near, the figurehead on the bow transforms before his eyes, the wood carving itself into a likeness of a stern-faced Akaashi._

_“Sawamura!” Sugawara calls, voice carrying over the breeze and waving to the men. “Come to me!”_

_He watches the two fishermen run to the starboard railing, leaning over to look at him. Sugawara preens, waving his tail so it catches the sunlight and smiling sweetly. _

_“Hey! Sawamura, look!” Bokuto shouts, pointing. His voice sounds like it’s right next to him. “It’s a mermaid!”_

Sugawara jolts awake as something pokes at his tail. “Hmm, stop poking me, ‘Kaashi,” he mutters. “Are they here?” Blinking blearily, he sits up—and finds himself staring into a bright pair of golden eyes.

“Whoa!” Bokuto exclaims, grinning widely at him. “They’re real!”

Akaashi’s fallen asleep next to him—otherwise he surely would have woken Sugawara up by now, but either way, they need to get out _now_. Sugawara grabs Akaashi’s hand and drags him into the water, slipping under and heading out to sea. Akaashi sputters next to him, squinting at him by way of asking what’s going on, but Sugawara just shakes his head, hoping his panicked expression will be enough of an explanation.

He’d risked a glance back at Sawamura before diving under, and he almost wishes he hadn’t. Even with the look of pure shock on his face, he was the most handsome human Sugawara had ever laid eyes on. And now they could never see each other again.

~

Akaashi and Sugawara spend the next week hiding near the ocean floor, not daring to venture too close to the surface. Sure, Sawamura and Bokuto seem harmless, but they can’t take any chances. Even the most well-meaning person could let the sighting slip to a coworker, or a family member, or a neighbor; word could get to those who _would_ hurt them, and then they’d be in trouble. So for seven days and seven nights, they keep deep underwater, watching every shadow overheard warily and not daring to breathe until it’s passed them by without incident. The morning of the eighth day dawns gray and foreboding, and Akaashi pulls Sugawara to the surface by the fin.

“I think we should be safe now,” Akaashi tells him as they peek above water. “We would have heard more of a commotion if they were looking for us.”

Akaashi is right—it’s happened before. But no larger boats have come out, they haven’t seen nets or cages too large for fish drop down, so they can assume they’re safe. Sugawara still isn’t certain. “Do you think?”

Akaashi nods. “I’m sure.”

“Sure enough for Gossip Point?”

“Maybe not that sure,” Akaashi relents. “But I’m bored and I want to hear Bokuto’s laugh again. I don’t think they’d really harm us.”

“Aha! You just want to see your handsome fisherman!” Sugawara accuses, pointing at his friend.

“Like you don’t want to see _your_ handsome fisherman, too,” Akaashi retorts, taking off toward Gossip Point.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Sugawara follows him, diving back underwater so he can swim faster. With a storm surely on the horizon, he wonders if they’ll see Bokuto and Sawamura at all. But they can hope.

His spyglass, thankfully, is still there, left behind from last week’s panic. And though he doesn’t see any boats leaving the docks, he stays as low as possible as he slithers onto the rock. “Hey,” Akaashi says, “their boat is gone already.”

“What? Isn’t it early?” Sugawara makes a grab for the spyglass, and the two tussle over it for a second before Sugawara wrests it from Akaashi’s grip and puts it up to his eye. Sure enough, there’s no sign of the _Seabird_. “I wonder why.”

Akaashi points toward the horizon, where a lonely white dot is heading out to see. “Is that them?”

A glance through the spyglass confirms it. Sugawara would recognize Bokuto’s hair _anywhere_. “What the hell are they doing that far out? They’ve never gone out that far…”

Akaashi gives him a look, brows knit slightly and eyes clouded with worry. “I want to make sure they’re not doing anything foolish.”

“Let’s go.”

Akaashi dives back into the water and Sugawara follows, hot on his tail. What do those humans think they’re doing? He keeps expecting them to stop and drop a net, but it never happens.

The sea floor slopes down, down, down, until the shelf drops off steeply, and still the _Seabird_ continues to stray further from shore. Sugawara frowns, tugging at Akaashi’s tail fin to make him slow down. There’s a reason they don’t go too far into the open ocean, not the least of which are the monsters that lurk in the deep. He had assumed humans knew about them, too, but…either Sawamura and Bokuto are lost or just stupid. Maybe both.

He swims to the surface, eyes above water as he watches the two fishermen.

“…this far,” Sawamura’s saying.

“Relax! I just thought there’d be more fish out where there’s fewer boats, you know?” Bokuto replies as he kills the motor. _Finally_.

Akaashi pops out of the water next to him seconds later. “They’re looking for more fish,” Sugawara tells him.

Akaashi squints. “More fish? They’ll find fewer fish out here. Isaonade eats them all.”

“But I don’t think they know that,” Sugawara says as Bokuto drops the net into the water. “Should we warn them?”

“And let them see us a second time?” But Akaashi makes no move to duck back underwater. “How do we do that?”

A sudden blast of wind buffets Sugawara’s face; he gulps, trying to suppress the tadpoles in his stomach. They’re too late.

In the boat, Bokuto gets blown over from the force of the wind, crashing into Sawamura as the boat rocks and knocking them both to the floor. “Whoa, what’s with the wind?”

“I don’t know!” Sawamura yells back, voice barely audible over the howling gusts. Sugawara dives back underwater to avoid the rough waves; Akaashi is already a hundred yards ahead of him. If they can push the boat back toward land, they should be safe then.

The surface of the water ripples menacingly—Sugawara ducks underwater to get his first glimpse at the creature. Rough, dull scales the size of his hand cover a thick, sinuous body so long he can’t see where the thing ends and where it begins. He smacks a palm over his mouth, blood running cold as it weaves through the water, heading right toward the _Seabird_.

He pops back up, grabbing Akaashi by the shoulders and shaking him. “What do we do?”

Akaashi’s eyes are wide with an unfamiliar panic. “We can’t get the boat to shore before it gets to them.”

“They’ll be devoured!”

Above the thrashing waves, a giant tail emerges from the sea, covered in nasty barbs. The fisherman are gasping, the nets dangling over the side of the boat, forgotten.

Akaashi looks helpless, lips pressed into a thin line. “We can’t.”

Sugawara looks from the Isonade, to Sawamura, to the shore, and then back to Sawamura. “We’re going to try.” And with that, he takes off, swimming toward the Seabird with all the speed he can muster. Pieces of a plan start formulating in his mind, but really, all he can focus on is: save Sawamura.

Akaashi catches up to him, motioning frantically with his hands. Sugawara cups one hand to represent the boat and then flips it over; Akaashi lights up in understanding before worry shadows his face once more. He taps his wrist. Sugawara nods. They’ll make it in time. They have to.

Sugawara reaches them first, taking a deep breath before launching himself out of the water and gripping the side of the boat.

Bokuto yelps and jumps to cower behind Sawamura. If there weren’t a hungry sea monster heading straight for them, it’d be comical, the way Bokuto’s doing a poor job of hiding behind the significantly smaller Sawamura. “Wait, you’re the mermaid we saw the other day!” Sawamura gasps.

“Hold your breath, humans. We’re getting you back to shore. Jump in.”

“Jump in?” Bokuto repeats. “Isn’t the—that _thing_ in the water?”

Akaashi nods. “We’ll swim you closer to shore.”

Sawamura glances from the barbed tail, which is growing closer with every passing second, to the two merman hanging on the side of the _Seabird_. “You won’t hurt us?”

Sugawara rolls his eyes. “If we wanted to hurt you, we’d have hurt you when you saw us last week. Come _on_, unless you want to be fish food.”

Bokuto strips his shirt off and dives in next to Akaashi. Akaashi’s cheeks turn pink at the sight of Bokuto’s naked torso, but he loops an arm around Bokuto’s chest and, with a splash of his tail, starts swimming back toward shore.

Sugawara looks back to Sawamura, who’s still frozen on the deck of the _Seabird_. “What are you waiting for, Sawamura?”

Sawamura’s mouth drops open. “How do you know my name?”

“Because I’ve heard Bokuto say it!” Sugawara lifts himself higher, arms straining from the effort as the boat rocks, and holds a hand out. “We don’t have time for pleasantries. Come on!”

Sawamura kicks his shoes off and jumps in, treading water next to him. “Now what?”

“Now, you hold your breath and let me do the swimming. This might get rough.” Sugawara copies what he saw Akaashi do, turning on his side with Sawamura pressed to his front and taking off as quickly as he can. Sawamura slows him down significantly, and the angle is strange, but at least they’re moving, and maybe they can put some distance between them and the Isonade this way.

Sugawara risks a look over his shoulder and sees the Isonade’s tail striking the _Seabird_. Sawamura winces. “There—there goes our boat,” he sputters out, wiping water from his face.

“Better the boat than you.” Up ahead, he can see Akaashi and Bokuto—they’ve made it safely back to shallower waters. “There’s not much farther.”

“Good.” Sawamura twists around to smile at him, eyes crinkling up at the corners and face open. “Since you know my name, can I know yours?”

“Later,” Sugawara says, voice clipped, preferring to focus his energy on swimming, and he’s glad that Sawamura doesn’t pester him about it.

Eventually, the Isonade’s tail slips back under water, the fierce winds die down to a lazy breeze, and the waves calm. Sugawara sighs. They’re safe.

“Is it gone?” Sawamura asks.

Sugawara nods. “It’s gone,” he confirms, casting his gaze to the shore in search of Akaashi and Bokuto. They’re sitting on Gossip Point—Sugawara can hear Bokuto’s loud laugh even from here.

“I can swim from here,” Sawamura offers.

Sugawara eyes him warily. “You can get all the way over there without help?”

“Hey, I’m a good swimmer.”

“Okay, but if you drown halfway there after all the effort we took to save you, that’s just rude.” Sugawara grins at him and lets go. Humans swim so oddly, he thinks as he watches Sawamura start to kick. They have so many different ways to swim, and kick, and move their arms, and Sugawara isn't sure what the purpose of all of them were, but it sure is interesting to watch.

Sawamura makes it about three-quarters of the way before flipping onto his back; thinking he wants to float and rest, Sugawara reaches out for him, but Sawamura surprises him again by swimming _backwards, _his arms pinwheeling over his head. Sugawara can't help a laugh. Strange creatures, indeed.

They reach Gossip Point to find Bokuto marveling over Akaashi’s golden scales and Akaashi blushing but basking in the compliments, turning his tail this way and that so Bokuto can get a good look. Sugawara hoists himself up, holding out a hand for Sawamura.

“That was crazy!” Bokuto exclaims, throwing his arms out. “What _was_ that thing?”

“The Isonade,” Sugawara explains, and both fishermen turn to him. “It goes after anyone who dares to venture into its part of the deep.”

“Oops.” Sawamura’s grin is sheepish. “I guess we learned our lesson.”

“Yes, no more fishing so far out for you,” Akaashi chastises them.

Sawamura pulls his soaking wet shirt off, wringing it out. Sugawara makes no effort to hide the once-over he gives the man and gets a smile for his trouble. “So. Your name?” Sawamura asks.

“Sugawara. And Akaashi.” Akaashi raises a hand in greeting right as Bokuto gives another little shout of excitement.

“Sugawara’s tail is silver! Can I see it?”

Laughing, Sugawara flips his tail toward Bokuto and letting the man run his hand over the smooth scales. “You can see it too, if you want, Sawamura.” He bites his lower lip, looking at the other fisherman expectantly.

Sawamura’s hand is large, strong, but gentle, as he lays it on Sugawara’s tail. “It’s so smooth!”

“What did you think it’d feel like?”

“I don’t know? Not this smooth?”

Sugawara and Akaashi burst into laughter, sharing a knowing look. Akaashi’s still grinning as he looks at Bokuto with something like fondness on his face. “You humans,” he says, shaking his head.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone about us.” Sugawara slaps his tail against the rock to get their attention. “Promise.”

“Yeah, of course!” Bokuto says. “We wouldn’t say anything.”

“Swear it,” Akaashi adds. “There are people who would want us for their own reasons. Aquariums, studies…the meat from our tails.”

Bokuto’s eyes, which were already round, have grown to the size of sand dollars. “No way! We won’t let anyone do anything to you guys. Right, Sawamura?”

“Right! Of course, yes. I mean, no. I mean—” Sawamura coughs. “Your secret is safe with us.”

Sugawara smiles. “Good. Now, don’t you have a shore to return to?”

“Ah…right.” Bokuto’s face falls as he casts a glance back to the docks. “Oh, man, they are gonna ask us so many questions. But we won’t say anything about you!”

“I believe you,” Akaashi tells him.

A warm weight settles atop his hand, and Sugawara looks up to see Sawamura’s hand over his own. “Will I see you again?” he’s asking.

Sugawara tilts his head, studying the human in front of him. Akaashi was right—Sugawara’s taken a shine to many a human man before, but they’d all been fleeting crushes that receded like the tide. But Sawamura…Sawamura’s different. They’ve met, for one, and he’s just as handsome up close as he is through the lens of a spyglass, and he seems to have a kind heart. “What are you asking for?”

“Nothing more than for this not to be our last meeting.” Sawamura’s hand slides over the still-damp skin of his forearm, fingers drifting over the fin there with curiosity.

Sugawara finds himself smiling, face warm under the afternoon sun. “You’ll find me. So long as you spend your days on the water, you’ll find me.”


End file.
